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So I was buying a Marlin XT .22 for my sons for Christmas (this will be their first gun) and I got to looking at the S&W M&P 15/22. Looked like a fun plinker and I couldn't pass up the price so I bought that too. I was reading through the manual and noticed the list of ammo for the M&P. I wanted to see for those that have this rifle what ammo have you had the most luck with?

Thanks in advance.

First off, congratulations on buying one of the most pure fun rifles to shoot! I am convinced that everyone needs a: Ruger 10/22, and a: S&W M&P 15/22
Both are essential rifles.
Now to your question. Unlike that finicky Ruger, you can put *anything* in the 15/22 and make it go bang! I mean I have not found a rimfire that it won't hurl downrange and cycle as of yet. WOOT! Which is great, because when I get a box that Mr. 10/22 thinks is "beneath his action", I toss it over to the 15/22 and 'set them free'. :)

I have tried all the major brands, in the "Econo-Boxes" and it has been a non-event with the 15/22. Load it, aim it, hit it.
You may not have read the Range Report I did awhile back. I let a Father and his 3 sons "borrow" the rifle while I was sighting in another rifle.
They shot the snot out of it, for the next 45 minutes. we estimated they did about 300 rounds at minimum. 1 Failure. Then I took the rifle back, and later put another 100+ rounds through it. Got it home that afternoon, and when I pulled out the 'bolt', it was *caked* in rimfire 'goo'. It moved back and forth, feeling 'gritty'.
AND YET only 1 failure all day.

Did I mention it is a fantastic rifle? LOL!

Also, pickup a 10-round magazine if you can. It is great and right size for "bench resting" the rifle when you need to shoot accurately.

Mine has not been at all finicky.

I agree with The Marshal and we have shot ours together, I think. I know I fired his before getting mine for my daughter. Anyway, the only thing we've put through it so far is That Winchester M-22 stuff from WalMart. We've been through about 700-800 rounds so far and I can't remember a misfire, FTE, or FTF. My daughter really likes it and she's pretty accurate with it. It looks so much like my M4 that when I lay them side by side and ask my wife or daughter which one is which they only get it right about half the time. When my daughter is ready for the M4 she will already know how to operate it.

Thanks for the feedback. I have some Winchester Dynapoint that has a muzzle velocity of 1150 fps. I'm hoping that's enough as I have a ton of it.

C-dub wrote:I agree with The Marshal and we have shot ours together, I think. I know I fired his before getting mine for my daughter. Anyway, the only thing we've put through it so far is That Winchester M-22 stuff from WalMart. We've been through about 700-800 rounds so far and I can't remember a misfire, FTE, or FTF. My daughter really likes it and she's pretty accurate with it. It looks so much like my M4 that when I lay them side by side and ask my wife or daughter which one is which they only get it right about half the time. When my daughter is ready for the M4 she will already know how to operate it.

I'm was thinking of getting some M-22 as a friend suggested it. Sounds like regardless of what I load it with it will work fine. Sucks that I have to wait until after Christmas to try it out.

I guess I'm the outlier of the group so far. I've found the Federal 550 packs from Wal-Mart (525 packs everywhere else) to be the best ammo in my gun. I tried 8-10 different rounds when I first got the gun and strangely enough, the gun hated the CCI "AR Tactial" rounds. I'd say out of every 25-round mag I probably had 1 to 2 failures of some form or fashion using that ammo. Other than that one though I've only had issues with two other brands, the Federal "Auto Match" and a some old Boy Scout CMP Federal .22 ammo I had laying around. The Auto Match seemed like it didn't want to feed correctly, but it was very sporadic and maybe affected every 50th round or so, so not really that big of a deal. The Boy Scout CMP ammo was older as I said and fairly tarnished, as such I can't say that I expected much from it and don't blame the gun for its failure to function; its since been relegated to use in an old single shot Winchester.

This was all from a 15-22 I bought about 1.5 years ago. A friend bought one over the summer and we tried the remnants of several boxes I had with much the same results. The good news is that everyone I've talked to that's run the Federal 550 boxes has been pleased. Even better is that its about the cheapest stuff you'll find out there.

Tried the Federal target match - had all sorts of problems feeding it. Bought some CCI and no issues that I can recall, it's been a while since I shot mine last, need to get back to the range.

I would run what ever the cheapest and largest pack of ammo I could find at WalMart would be.

Ours has consumed a few thousand rounds of of Federal Champion 36gr copper plated from 525 round value packs, without issue.



We found that the magazine loading technique was important for consistency regardless of Ammo. If you watch how this guy loads his magazines in this youtube video starting around 2:30, you'll see what works for us. And by us, I mean my 13 and 15 year-old kiddos as dad doesn't get much time with it. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9krQs31e6L4

This ammo may not be the most accurate but for plinking it's plentiful and less expensive than most others nowadays. It doesn't take long for 3-4 kiddos to chew up a brick. Also for what it's worth, it has worked fine in our other .22LR shooters, semi-auto or not.

Last order came from here a few weeks ago at $16.99 per brick, shipped :
https://www.shopdunns.com/products/2632 ... ated_case/

My M&P15-22 (and Savage MKII TRRSR) are sitting at my dealer right now awaiting my return... I just ordered 5k MiniMags for both, but hopefully I can find cheaper consistent ammo for them and my other 22s.